State Assembly by-polls: BJP bags Chincholi, Congress retains Kundgol

Bengaluru: The Congress lost the Chincholi seat to BJP, but retained Kundgol in the assembly by-election, whose results were announced Thursday, officials said.

The elections had taken place on May 19 in which the fight was mainly between the BJP and Congress, ruling alliance partner of JDS.

Congress candidate Kusumavathi Shivalli, widow of the sitting MLA C S Shivalli whose death caused the bypoll, won from Kundgol.

She defeated her nearest BJP rival S IChikkanagoudar by a margin of 1,601 votes.

In Chincholi, BJP candidate Avinash Jadhav defeated the Congress candidate Subhash Rathod by 8,030 votes.

The Chincholi seat was previously with the Congress.

However, the sitting Congress MLA Umesh Jadhav rebelled against the party over cabinet expansion and later resigned from the party only to join BJP and contest the Lok Sabha election against Congress stalwart Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga and defeated him by 95,452 votes.

Jadhav succeeded in persuading the BJP brass to grant a ticket to his son Avinash, who too won the election along with his father.

With this victory, BJP has increased its strength to 105 in the 224-member assembly and the Congress to 78, down by one with the loss of Chincholi.